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The No. 8 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater volleyball team used outstanding hitting in the first two sets and fought off two set points in the third Thursday night for a 25-16, 25-5, 27-25 victory against No. 22 UW-Stevens Point in a semifinal of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament presented by Culver's at Russell Arena.
 
The second-seeded Warhawks (26-1 overall) will visit No. 10 UW-Eau Claire, the tournament's top seed, this Saturday at 7 p.m. for the tournament championship match.
 
UW-W hit .333 in Thursday's match, including a sterling .607 in the second set, while holding the third-seeded Pointers (26-7) to a .039.
 
Erin McNeil (Crystal Lake, Ill./Prairie Ridge) led all attackers with 10 kills. Kirsten Anderson (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) hit .500 on her way to nine kills, two service aces and four blocks, and Emma Aske (Aurora, Ill./Metea Valley) posted nine kills on a .600 hitting percentage to go along with eight digs.
 
Jenna Weinfurt (Waukesha, Wis./Catholic Memorial) tallied eight kills, two digs and three blocks, Morgan Wardall (Merrill, Wis./Merrill) collected four kills and three blocks, and Baylie Hansen (Bonduel, Wis./Shawano) registered four kills and four blocks.
 
Paige Manssen (Bull Valley, Ill./McHenry West) and KellyAnn Sotiros (New Berlin, Wis./West Allis Hale) combined for 35 assists and 11 digs. Morgan Jensen (Sun Prairie, Wis./Sun Prairie) led the back row with 13 digs to go with four service aces, and Hailey Mackenthun (Webster, Minn./Northfield) contributed six digs and two service aces.
 
The Warhawks turned a 7-5 deficit in the opening set into a 9-7 advantage and didn't look back. UW-W made extended runs on the serves of Aske, Jensen and Mackenthun for a 23-12 advantage. McNeil ended the set with a kill.
 
At 6-3 in the second set, Mackenthun served 13 consecutive points as part of a 14-0 UW-Whitewater run to make it 19-3. The Warhawks recorded six of the last eight points to run away to a 2-0 match advantage.
 
Trailing 6-2 in the third, UW-W made a similar run, this time on Jensen's serve, to turn the deficit into a 14-6 lead. UW-Stevens Point continued to chip away at its deficit, and eventually took the lead at 23-22.
 
The Pointers earned two set points. At 24-23, Anderson and Hansen combined for a block to tie the score. Following a kill by the Pointers, the Warhawks leveled the score again thanks to a kill by Anderson.
 
A kill by Aske gave UW-Whitewater the lead, and Wardall and Hansen ended the match with a block to send the Warhawks to their eighth consecutive conference tournament title match.
 
UW-Eau Claire (28-3), which punched its ticket to the final with a five-set victory against UW-Oshkosh on Thursday night, defeated UW-Whitewater in three sets back on Sept. 22.
 
The winner of Saturday's contest earns the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.